System of transcribing for the blind



April 11, 1950 E. R. DIAGO 2,503,941

SYSTEM OF TRANSCRIBING FOR THE BLIND Filed May 11, 1946 INVENTOR. JR.fAk/e/qws EUflR/GUEZj/HGO' W4 My M Patented Apr. 11, 1950 SYSTEM OF TRANSCRIBING FOR THE BLIND Enrique Rodriguez Diago, Barranquilla, ColombiaApplication May 11, 1946, Serial No. 669,030

3 Claims.

more readily than the Braille system and which,

once learned, is simpler and faster than the Braille system.

A further object of the invention is to provide a cord system for theblind which is inexpensive, can be readily provided with the transcribedmatter and can be kept in a compact form when not in use.

A still further object of the invention is to provide a simple, readymeans of communication between the blind.

Other objects of the invention, as well as its advantages, will becomemore apparent after a perusal of the following description when read inconnection with the accompanying drawing, in which Fig. 1 is a plan viewof a cord illustrating the alphabet employed in the invention, and Fig.2 is a plan view of a cord provided with reading matter, the cord orstring being broken to facilitate reading it by the visual sense.

In carrying out the invention, use is made of the Morse alphabet or codebecause it is readily learned and because a number of blind persons arealready familiar with it. It will be understood however, that any othersystem or code may be devised for the purposes of the invention. Inadopting or applying the Morse code and its modifications in theinvention, the dots and dashes of such code are transcribed into knotson a cord. As will be readily seen from Fig. 1 of the drawing, the dotof the Morse code in the instant invention, is made the equivalent of aknot of a particular size and the dash of the Morse code is equivalentto a knot of greater size. Thus, where in the Morse code the letter A isrepresented by a dot and a dash, the letter A in the instant system isformed on the cord or string ID by a small knot l l and a large knot [2.In the same manner, the remainder of the letters of the alphabet (seeFig. 1) are represented on the cord I0 by groups of small and largeknots corresponding to the dots and dashes, respectively, of the Morsecode or it modification.

The cord In may be made of any suitable material which lends itselfreadily to the accomplishment of the invention, such as, cotton, wool,thermoplastic material, metal, etc. When using thermoplastic material ormetal, it will be understood that the knots H and I2 may be in the formof beads attached to the cord or molded thereon in the formation of thecord. Accordingly, where the term cord is used in the claims, it isintended to cover ordinary cord, string, twine, thermoplastic or wirefilaments, etc., while where the term knot is used in the claims, it isintended by such expression to cover knots in the ordinary sense of theword, beads, embossments, etc. In accordance with the preferred form ofthe invention, the cord It is of usual construction on which the knots Hand i2 are tied in the usual fashion or by means of special needle. Thesmall knots ll may be the usual overhand knots and are preferably made 1mm. in diameter. The larger knots I2 may be made in the form of overhandknots or figure-of-eight knots and are preferably of 3 mm. diameter. Thespacing between the knots in each group forming a letter of thealphabet, except of course the knots which represent the letters E andT, should be of the order of 1 cm. The interval between spaced lettersin a word is preferably 3 cm., while the spacing between words may be 5cm. The spacings between the elements of letters, letters and words areillustrated in Fig. 2 of the drawings, in which the spacings designatedl3 between the knots II and [2 which form the elements of the letter Care of the order of one centimeter, the spacings designated l4 betweenthe letters of the word Cord are of the order of three centimeters andthe spacings designated l5 between the terminal and first letters of thewords in the message Cord system for the blind are of the order of fivecentimeters. Suitable spacings are also utilized to indicate the ends ofparagraphs and chapters, for example, spacings of the order of ninecentimeters may be used between paragraphs, while spacings of the orderof fifteen centimeters may be used between chapters. The beginnings andendings of sentences may be indicated by open knots. As is illustratedin the drawings, the beginning of a phrase or sentence may be indicatedby a loop knot l6 of the order of four centimeters in diameter, whilethe ending of the phrase or sentence may be indicated by a knot I'Isimilar to knot l6 but having its loop cut and known as an open handknot. Where the sentence forms part of a paragraph, it willbe understoodthat the ends l8 of the open knots l6 and I! are continuations of, orintegral with, the

cord portions ID on which are transcribed antecedent and succeedingsentences of the paragraph.

It will be understood from the foregoing, that in reading the abovedescribed cord, sightless persons have only to translate the code bypulling the cord through their fingers. Once the code is learned, thecord can be read with relatively great rapidity. When the readerfinishes a cord provided with reading matter in accordance with theinvention, he rolls the cord into a ball or on a spool and it is readyto read again by himself or by another reader. It will be noted that thematerials utilized by this system are relatively inexpensive and thatthe reading matter can be transcribed thereon at relatively little cost.The code itself is quite simple and is in many cases already known bysightless persons so that the system can be employed by them withoutspending long periods of time in its instruction. The system also lendsitself readily as a means ofcommunication between blind persons, becauseof its inexpensive nature, its ready construction and its simple code.

While I have described and illustrated a preferred embodiment of myinvention, it will be evident that various modifications thereof may bemade and employed without departing from the spirit of the invention.

I claim:

1. A reading device for the blind comprising a flexible member havingformed thereon a series of knots transcribing reading matter, said knotsbeing arranged according to a predetermined code and being of variedform to indicate the grammatical construction of the reading mattertranscribed on such member when the latter is pulled by a blind personthrough the fingers.

2. A reading device for the blind comprising a base member having formedthereon a series of knots transcribing reading matter, said knotsincluding knots of two sizes arranged according to a predetermined codeto indicate letters of the alphabet and words, and knots of differentform provided on said base member for indicating the beginning and endsof sentences, whereby a blind person pulling said base member throughthe fingers will translate the reading matter on said member.

3. A reading device such as defined in claim 2 in which the knots of twosizes are arranged according to the Morse code, the smaller sized knotsbeing the equivalents of dots in the Morse code and the larger sizedknots being the equivalents of the dashes in such code, the smaller andlarger sized knot forming each word being spaced apart a distance lessthan the diameter of a larger sized knot, and in which an open knot ofone form is provided on said base member to indicate the beginnings ofsentences and in which an open knot of another form is provided on suchbase member to indicate the ends of sentences.

ENRIQUE RODRIGUEZ DIAGO.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 2,412,183 Taylor Dec. 3, 1946FORMGN PATENTS Number Country Date 541,021 France July 21, 1922 OTHERREFERENCES American Practical Navigator, published by U. S. HydrographicOiiice, Government Printing Ofiice, 1Q25, Section No. 18 entitled TheLead. (Copy in Div. 66.)

